A patient writes . . . I was admitted to Good Samaritan for HELLP syndrome at 32 weeks pregnant with twins. The purpose of this letter is to let you know how impressed and grateful my family is to your amazing staff for the care we received during our stay.
From the beginning my nurses took exceptional care of me. Sara and Jenny were so attentive and compassionate to what I was going through. I was so sick and in so much pain as well as being terrified for not only my health but the health of our unborn daughters. They were with me and my family every step of the way, always with a smile on their faces. I also had a male nurse the night before my C-Section who showed the utmost professionalism and respect to me throughout his shift. He also made sure that Jenny would be the nurse with me in the operating room for which I am so appreciative. Once I was moved to post-partum Kim was my nurse and I couldn’t have gotten through my recovery without her. She was so positive when I was feeling really down about not being able to spend enough time in the NICU with my girls. She was also so sweet and had a smile on her face every day. She made my recovery as enjoyable as it could be given the circumstances.
The night before our daughters were born the Mother/Baby unit as well as the NICU had reached full capacity and the staff wasn’t sure if they would be able to accommodate our preemie babies. We found out later that the staff rearranged the NICU and called in nurses to work extra shifts in order to allow us to stay instead of being transferred to Saint Joseph’s. This meant that family would be closer, we could come back and forth quicker from our house in Thornton and we could keep our level of comfort with Good Samaritan.
Once our daughters were born they were immediately transferred into the NICU and my husband was introduced to Sara Wiese. There are not enough words for me to describe how much Sara has come to mean to our family. Not only was she the first nurse we met but she continued to care for our daughters the majority of 4 weeks. She was incredible! She would sit with my husband and walk him through exactly what she was doing and why, let him help, and taught him how to do everything. When I came into the NICU for the first time and passed out due to still being sick she was the one that took care of me. She let me cry when I needed it and she was always so positive about our girls. You should feel very fortunate to have such an amazing person on your staff!
When one of our twins was transferred to another hospital we were devastated. Our experience at that hospital was not good and we desperately wanted to be back at Good Samaritan where we felt more comfortable. I ended up calling the NICU at Good Samaritan the first night coming home from that hospital in tears. Lisa took the time to calm me down and explain the procedure our daughter was having. She was so comforting and I couldn’t have asked for anything more that night. One of the doctors made a comment about the nurses at Good Sam spoiling their patients. My response to that is if spoiling means knowing our child’s name and medical history, introducing yourself to the parents, explaining why procedures are being done and having compassion for what families are going through, then I will take being spoiled any day of the week.
Having babies in the NICU is and I think will always be one of the most difficult things my husband and I will ever have to go through. Thanks to your staff, however, we have very fond memories of our time in the hospital. We tell everyone we know who are having kids to go to Good Samaritan.